After nearly six months in prison, former Mauritania president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is free. The government this Friday set about responding favorably to requests to rescue the former head of state and release him for health reasons. A few days back, he was admitted to the Military Hospital in Nauakchot where he underwent heart surgery. Ould Abdel Aziz found his family this Saturday. According to local media reports, he has now been kept under judicial and medical supervision at home.

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz ruled Mauritania with an iron fist from 2008 to 2019. It was trouble for him in 2020 once he relinquished power. A parliamentary inquiry commission made the transfer during the years of his reign. But the former president refused to appear before this commission, then judged for “corruption, money laundering, illegal enrichment, waste of public goods, giving unfair advantage and obstructing the course of justice” during the performance of his duties. Prosecuted. , The allegation that the former president has always denied, crying out for a “settlement of scores”.

Tightening the noose, Ould Abdel Aziz became a political challenger overnight by launching a successful takeover bid on a small left-wing formation, the Democratic Socialist Unionist Party, formed just after his release by a former non-commissioned officer in the Mauritanian army. Was. the prison. The PUDS has no elected representatives neither in the municipalities nor in the Parliament. An initiative that angered the current president, Mohamed Sheikh Ould Al Ghazouni, ordered the suspension of party activities and the closure of its headquarters.

The face-to-face meeting between the two former “friends” lasts until they reach a compromise.